


tomorrow's memory; yesterday's dream

by alainey



Category: League of Legends
Genre: F/M, Introspection, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 14:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alainey/pseuds/alainey
Summary: Jhin’s fingers, splayed thin against his stomach, tap slowly alongside the quiet strum of Sona’s etwahl. The night has grown late - moon already high in its transit across the sky - yet Jhin has not noticed, his eyes closed to the world as he relishes in the sweet notes of the silent woman’s song.The world is quiet save for her music - just as it so often is when they spend their evenings like this - and these days, Jhin finds himself cherishing these moments more than any other. The two of them have fallen into a rhythm (if their secret, mid-evening visits to the Placidium could be labeled as such), wherein the two of them will set out to sit under the stars of Ionia’s most mystical garden, and Sona will play for them both until there’s nothing that either of them can think about except the sweet release of sleep.





	tomorrow's memory; yesterday's dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RosyMiz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosyMiz/gifts).

Jhin’s fingers, splayed thin against his stomach, tap slowly alongside the quiet strum of Sona’s etwahl. The night has grown late - moon already high in its transit across the sky - yet Jhin has not noticed, his eyes closed to the world as he relishes in the sweet notes of the silent woman’s song.

The world is quiet save for her music - just as it so often is when they spend their evenings like this - and these days, Jhin finds himself cherishing these moments more than any other. The two of them have fallen into a rhythm (if their secret, mid-evening visits to the Placidium could be labeled as such), wherein the two of them will set out to sit under the stars of Ionia’s most mystical garden, and Sona will play for them both until there’s nothing that either of them can think about except the sweet release of sleep.

Sona knows how messy his mind has always been - how chaotic his visions can be. She knows the depths of his mind better than any other, and she works with him - lovingly, carefully - to tame it. When Sona plays, the cacophony of color that so often blinds his vision will drift lazily to the back of his mind, and a current of calm will awash his senses. It’s a beautiful thing, Jhin thinks, that her music might have such an incredibly healthy effect on his mind: a truly delicate, beautiful, mystical thing. And, in his own complicated way, he loves her for it.

That’s not to say he doesn’t love her for other reasons - as he certainly does - yet there’s something special about her interest in him, her heartfelt devotion that he doesn’t yet know how to place. They’ve been dancing circles around each other for years now, and it’s a slow, lazy dance that Jhin has found he doesn’t really mind. He enjoys the careful complexity of it, and he’s sure that Sona does too.

Perhaps the time will come when he speaks his passion into words, but that day, Jhin thinks - as Sona’s song continues its soft drifting through his skull - is certainly not today. For now, at least, his actions will be more than enough.

Sona’s playing is meticulous, even and elegant, and Jhin smiles, unaware - or perhaps simply uncaring - of the slow, relentless passage of stars that dance above his head, quietly observing him as he slips into an easy, dreamless sleep.

\- -

Sona - from her seat upon Placidium stone - lets out a soft sigh.

She plays her etwahl, watches the rise and fall of his chest move in time with her song, and wonders if she, too, will be able to pass into unconsciousness tonight. Her fingers are light as she plays, yet her eyes are considering: Khada Jhin, such a strange, brilliant man. In the time that Sona has known him, he has changed so much - unexpectedly so, but not unfavorably.

The tall grasses of Ionia’s gardens, swaying slightly in the gently blowing breeze, frame Jhin’s body. The moonlight filters across his open face - his mask set carefully on the ground beside him - and the white light illuminates his features in a way that Sona always marvels to see. For when Jhin is asleep, the troubles of his world seem to fall from his visage; the lines that cover his face soften, and the thin grin that his lips perpetually default into fades to a more… pleasantly neutral expression.

Sona knows she loves his man. And she knows how much work Jhin has put into allowing her to get there. Jhin’s past is of little consequence now - he has done his dues, atoned and proven himself to her over and over again - and yet, on particular nights like this, Sona cannot help but wonder:

Could she have loved him had he not strived to change with the fervor that he had? Would she have worked to help him in the same way she does now? Would she have struck him down on a night like this, her fingers bleeding as she pours her rage into the strings of her etwahl? Or, perhaps, would she have already been dead, slain gracefully - artfully - under the careful eye of the demonic Virtuoso?

Sona doesn’t really want to know. 

But one day, she knows she’ll have to ask him - her curiosity, her selfishness, her self-doubt: they will surely allow her nothing else.

Until then, however, Sona knows she will do nothing more than love him as she can. She will pour her trust into the healing ballads that work to ease Jhin’s mind, and he, in turn, will admit to her when the world is simply getting to be too much. He will hold her, paint for her, play for her, cherish her - 

And so, until that fateful day arrives, Sona will wait, Sona will play, and Sona will cherish him in turn. 

It is only once the moon is finally finishing its transit across the sky that Sona bids her hands their final rest. She sets her doubts aside, and - tucking the etwahl safe against a weeping, twisting tree - she turns herself to Jhin, and allows the soft Navori grasses to reach up and welcome her into their silent embrace. 

Sona sleeps, Jhin pulls her closer; and the world continues its slow rotation - just as it always inevitably does.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [leagueofwriting](https://twitter.com/leagueofwriting) prompt “passing time” and inspired by my love for [RosyMiz](https://twitter.com/rosymiz) and her lovely three sentence fic prompt from earlier this month. Hope you enjoy this silly (and much longer than three sentence) fic, Alice! :D


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